Eagles Lift Us Up Where We Belong and Tilly

©island rambles

© island rambles

Tilly is a young Golden Eagle and she gives us an amazing video of flying with a tiny TV camera on her back. Here is a link to Tilly and enjoy a eagle's eye of the world: She flies over a beautiful area of Scotland for us>Tilly's Eagle Camera Page You have to click on the picture to get the video. Thanks to Animal Planet for the great video. Have you ever wondered what is the difference between a Golden Eagle and a Bald Eagle?? Bald eagles belong to the piscivorous (fish eating) group of sea eagles and they usually live near an aquatic area like the ocean or a lake. The Golden eagle is part of a totally different group. If you have ever seen a Golden eagle's legs you will know why...they are part of the "booted" eagles. Yes they have feather boots or their legs are not scaled but covered with lovely feathers which go right down the leg. Here is a picture of a Golden eagles foot.

Also the Golden eagle eats a different diet, they love to eat inland mammals instead of fish, but we have seen them fish sometimes. There are around 59 species of eagles in the world but we only have these two in North America.

The bald eagle is named for an old English word "balde" meaning white headed. The Golden eagle may be named for the golden feathers at the top and back of their heads as you can see in the picture on the top there.

This page of eagle links here is specially for children and has some wonderful pages on bald eagles.

Did you know you can tell which is a female and which is a male eagle by their toe size and beak size? The female bald eagle is usually larger than a male. How long do eagles live...well a 25 year old eagle is considered old and a thirty year old is very old in the wild. It takes an eagle 35 days to incubate its eggs and it takes them around 120 days to raise their young until they are independent of the nest. So they are in the nesting or breeding area for 5 and a half months, but in warmer areas the eagles stay much longer. Most eagles have about two eggs each year and there is no evidence to show that old age reduces the amount of egg laying....so a female eagle starts to lay her eggs when she is five years old, then she has twenty years to lay her eggs so in theory she could have forty eaglets in her life time. Actually eagles seem to take a year off now and then from having young to take care of, this could be due to low availability of food or poor climate conditions. Eagles mate for life but if one eagle dies the other will take a new mate.